WASHINGTON — The House failed on Thursday to advance a constitutional amendment that would require Congress not spend more than the nation collects in revenue. Some conservative lawmakers had hoped a vote on the bill would calm grassroots conservatives who had been fuming about recent high levels of spending.

On a mostly party line vote, Republicans failed to advance the bill, 233-184. Normally, legislation requires 218 votes to win approval in the House and can be passed with just Republican votes. The balanced budget amendment, however, required bipartisan support with a two-thirds majority vote because it was a constitutional amendment.

The balanced budget amendment introduced by Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, said Congress can't spend more than it takes in, unless three-fifths of both the House and Senate vote to do so. Congress could achieve the balanced budget through spending cuts or by raising taxes, though the latter step would also require a three-fifths vote in both the House and the Senate. Similarly, Congress could not raise the debt ceiling without super majority votes.

"The only way to ensure that Congress acts with fiscal restraint over the long term is to pass a balanced budget amendment," Goodlatte said on the House floor Thursday.

Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., the chair of the 150-conservative-member Republican Study Committee had been pushing for a vote on the amendment since the fall when he secured enough votes for a budget bill and was promised legislation would eventually be brought up. But the announcement of a vote came after Congress voted to approve a $1.3 trillion spending bill last month. Conservatives had been furious and GOP members felt the heat when they went home for a two-week Easter break.

"While it certainly is a disappointment that a Balanced Budget Amendment was blocked by Democrats, this cannot be the the end of our efforts to get America back on the right fiscal track," Walker said in a statement after the vote. "With the recent $1.3 trillion budget-busting omnibus, we must renew our efforts to tackle the spending crisis."

While supportive of a balanced budget amendment in theory, some conservatives said Thursday's bill was purely symbolic and had no teeth.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the most vocal conservatives in the House, said the vote coming so quickly after approval of the spending bill was "the definition of audacity.”

“It’s got a loophole you can drive a truck through," Massie said referring to the provision that would allow three-fifths of both the House and Senate vote to waive the amendment.

This Balanced Budget Amendment defines audacity! I had to speak about it today on the floor... https://t.co/IvzurQsBR6

"Anyone supporting a balanced budget amendment should also have a plan to achieve a balanced budget and support efforts to implement such a plan; otherwise, it is not a serious proposal," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The vote comes just days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the annual federal deficit will grow “rapidly” over the next four years and will exceed $1 trillion by 2020.

"This is just a deeply cynical and utterly hypocritical effort by these Republican House members to deflect all blame for the annual trillion dollar budget deficits the Congressional Budget Office reported on Monday," Stan Collender, a budget expert wrote in Forbes this week.

Democrats called the bill hypocritical, especially coming after the GOP voted for a tax reform bill that is estimated to add $1.5 trillion to the debt.

“The balanced budget amendment is in no way balanced in terms of values and how we invest in our future," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday. "Now Republicans have the chutzpah to bring forth a balanced budget amendment." The real goal of that measure, she added, was “to force devastating cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.”

"This Balanced Budget Amendment is supposed to trick people into believing Republicans still care about fiscal responsibility," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said on the House floor Wednesday.